Edward Norton Steps into Pete Seeger’s Role in ‘A Complete Unknown’ – Bob Dylan Biopic

Edward Norton replaces Benedict Cumberbatch as Pete Seeger in James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic ‘A Complete Unknown,’ starring Timothée Chalamet as Dylan and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Dylan’s love interest during the early 1960s. Russo is a university student and an aspiring artist. Cumberbatch exited the film due to scheduling conflicts.

The filming will begin in New York this March. The story follows a young Bob Dylan (Chalamet), who makes waves in the music world in 1965 by incorporating an electric guitar into his performances for the first time.

Directed by Mangold for Searchlight Pictures. The script is penned by Jay Cocks, with Mangold handling revisions.

According to Mangold, Chalamet will also do his own singing in the film. Mangold said, “It’s such an amazing time in American culture and the story of Bob, a young 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with $2 in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years, first being embraced and kind of into the family of folk music in New York. And then, of course, he kind of outruns them at a certain point as his star rises. It’s so beyond belief, it’s such an interesting true story about such an interesting moment in America, the American scene, and different characters from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan, to Pete Seeger, to Joan Baez. All have a role to play in this movie.”

Norton, known for ‘Primal Fear‘ and ‘American History X,’ has been busy. He reunited with Wes Anderson in ‘Asteroid City‘ and starred with Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson’s ‘Knives Out‘ sequel, ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery‘.

Dylan’s longtime manager Jeff Rosen will produce the biopic alongside Veritas Entertainment Group’s Bob Bookman, Alan Gasmer, and Peter Jaysen, Automatik’s Fred Berger, The Picture Company’s Alex Heineman, and director James Mangold. Executive producers on the project include Dylan himself, as well as Automatik’s Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Andrew Rona.

The release date for ‘A Complete Unknown’ has not been revealed yet.